"Were you meaning, perhaps, that you"d make a home for me? Ah, Spinner in the Sun, it takes a woman to make a home!"
"Yes, I"d make a home, or go gypsying with you, just as you chose."
The Piper laughed, with inexpressible tenderness. "You know, I"m thinking, that "t would be a home, and not gypsying--that I"d not let you face anything I could shield you from."
Evelina laughed, too--a low, sweet laugh. "Yes, I know," she said.
The Piper turned away, struggling with temptation. At length he came back to her. ""T is wrong of me, I"m thinking, but I take you as a man takes Heaven, and we"ll do the work together. "T is as though I had risen from the dead and the gates of pearl were open, with all the angels of G.o.d beckoning me in."
In the exaltation that was upon him, he had no thought of profaning her by a touch. She stood apart from him as something high and holy, enthroned in a sacred place.
"Beloved," he pleaded, "will you be coming; with me now to the place where I saw you first? "T is night now, and then "twas day, but I"m thinking the words are wrong. "T is day now, with the sun and moon and stars all shining at once and suns that I never saw before. Will you come?"
"I"ll go wherever you lead me," she answered. "While you hold my hand in yours, I can never be afraid."
They went through the night together, taking the shorter way over the hills. She stumbled and he took her hand, his own still trembling.
"Close your beautiful eyes," he whispered, "and trust me to lead you."
Though she did not close her eyes, she gave herself wholly to his guidance, noting how he chose for himself the rougher places to give her the easier path. He pushed aside the undergrowth before her, lifted her gently over damp hollows, and led her around the stones.
At last they came to the woods that opened out upon the upper river road, where she had stood the day she had been splashed with mud from Anthony Dexter"s wheels, and, at the same instant, had heard the mysterious flutings from afar. They entered near the hill to which her long wandering had led her, and at the foot of it, the Piper paused.
"You"ll have no fear, I"m thinking, since the moon makes the clearing as bright as day, and I"ll not be letting you out of my sight. I have a fancy to stand upon yonder level place and call you as I called you once before. Only, this time, the heart of me will dance to my own music, for I know you"ll be coming all the while I play."
He left her and clambered up the hill to the narrow ledge which sloped back, and was surrounded with pines. He kept in the open s.p.a.ces, so that the moonlight was always upon him, and she did not lose sight of him more than once or twice, and then only for a moment. The hill was not a high one and the ascent was very gradual. Within a few minutes, he had gained his place.
Clear and sweet through the moonlit forest rang out the pipes o" Pan, singing of love and joy. Never before had the Piper"s flute given forth such music as this. The melody was as instinctive as the mating-call of a thrush, as crystalline as a mountain stream, and as pure as the snow from whence the stream had come.
Evelina climbed to meet him, her face and heart uplifted. The silvery notes dropped about her like rain as she ascended, strangely glad and strangely at peace. When she reached the level place where he was standing, his face illumined with unspeakable joy. He dropped his flute and opened his arms.
"My Spinner in the Sun," he whispered, "I called you, and you came."
"Yes," she answered, from his close embrace, "you called me, and I have come--for always."
At last, he released her and they stood facing each other. The Piper was stirred to the depths of his soul. "Last night I dreamed," he said, "and "t was the dream that brought me back. It was a little place, with a brook close by, and almost too small to be called a house, but "twas a home, I"m thinking, because you were there. It was night, and I had come back from making the world a bit easier for some poor woman-soul, and you were standing in the door, waiting.
"The veil was gone, and there was love on your face--ah, I"ve often dreamed a woman was waiting for me so, but because you hide your beauty from me, "t is not for me to be asking more. G.o.d knows I have enough given me, now.
"Since the first, I"ve known you were very beautiful, and very brave.
I knew, too, that you were sad--that you had been through sorrows no man would dare to face. I"ve dreamed your eyes were like the first violets of Spring, your lips deep scarlet like the Winter berries, and I know the wonder of your hair, for The veil does not hide it all.
I"ve dreamed your face was cold and pure, as if made from marble, yet tender, too, and I well know that it"s n.o.ble past all words of mine, because it bears brave scars.
"I"ve told you I would never ask, and I"ll keep my word, for I know well "t is not for the likes of me to see it, but only to dream. Don"t think I"m asking, for I never will, but, Spinner in the Sun, because you said you would fare with me on the highway and face the cold and storm, it gives me courage to ask for this.
"If I close my eyes, will you lift your veil, and let me kiss the brave scars, that were never from sin or shame? The brave scars, Beloved--ah, if you would let me, only once, kiss the brave scars!"
Evelina laughed--a laugh that was half a sob--and leaning forward, full into the moonlight, she lifted her veil--for ever.